Home automation and control refers to the use of computer and information technology to control home systems, such as lighting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); audio-visual; smoke detection; security; and shading. Using specialized hardware, even household appliances such as coffeemakers can be monitored and controlled automatically. A feature of science fiction for many years, home automation has only recently become practical, both from a technological and cost perspective. This is due to the rapid advancement of information technology.
A home automation and control system (hereinafter “home automation system”) in the prior art includes i) sensor devices configured to monitor conditions such as temperature, light, motion detection, and so on, ii) actuator devices to control devices such as motorized valves, switches, and so on, and iii) some control logic. The system also includes a human-machine interface device that enables someone, such as a resident of the home or an occupant of a building, to interact with the system. The interface is typically a specialized, dedicated terminal such as a kinetic device, or an application (“app”) running on a smartphone or tablet computer. The various sensor, actor, and interface devices communicate over dedicated wiring, or over a wired network, or wirelessly, using one or more protocols.
The sensor devices that are present in a home automation system typically include one or more of the following:                i. a motion detection sensor to detect and report the motion and/or presence of humans.        ii. a temperature sensor to detect and report ambient temperature.        iii. a light sensor to detect and report light level.        iv. an air humidity sensor to detect and report humidity level.        v. a carbon dioxide sensor to detect and report carbon dioxide level.        vi. a carbon monoxide sensor to detect and report carbon monoxide level.        vii. a flood (water) sensor to detect and report the presence of water.        viii. a rain sensor to detect and report whether it is raining outside.        
A home automation system having one or more of the aforementioned sensor devices present is able to trigger certain events, such as turning on lights with motion detection, controlling HVAC systems, and so on.
Most home automation systems in the prior art are based on peer-to-peer network architectures that include the sensor and actor devices mentioned earlier. Sensor devices transmit information, such that actor devices can act on the information transmitted. The actor devices act on the information gathered and transmitted by the sensor devices. For example, a sensor detects motion, propagates this information such that a light module receives it, which module turns on electrical current to a light bulb as a result.
There are two primary classes of home automation systems in the prior art. In a first home automation system in the prior art, depicted in FIG. 1A, each sensor device communicates directly with a particular actor or actors. The actor device does not analyze the information it gets, rather it merely responds to it. The entire logic is in the sensor device, in terms of which actor or actors should the sensor device trigger, for how long, on what condition, and so on. A particular example of this class of automation systems is based on Z-Wave™ radio technology, widely used in home installations, in which the sensors devices are thermostats, motion sensors, and wall switches, and the actor devices are typically actuators that affect the flow of electrical current, such as to a light bulb and so on.
In a second home automation system in the prior art, depicted in FIG. 1B, each sensor device broadcasts its signal, but does not know who the recipient of the signal is. Each actor device monitoring for signals that are being broadcast by sensor devices is programmed to listen to specific events from specific sensor devices. Most of the control logic in this class of automation systems is in the actor device, in contrast to the sensor device as in the system depicted in FIG. 1A. A particular example of this class of automation systems is based on EnOcean™ radio technology, in which the wireless sensor is powered by the physical force of pushing a button or by another energy-harvesting approach.
Both of the aforementioned systems are peer-to-peer, in that there is no processing entity between sensor devices and actor devices. All peer-to-peer systems can be equipped with so-called gateways, which are usually equipped with computer network connectivity, such as through wired Ethernet or wireless Wi-Fi, and are generally Internet protocol- (IP-) based. At the same time, a peer-to-peer gateway usually has a radio module dedicated to a particular system, such as a Z-Wave™-to-IP gateway or an EnOcean™-to-IP gateway.
A peer-to-peer gateway in a home automation context realizes two functions. First, it enables IP-connected devices to interact with a radio network; for example, it can use a smartphone to turn on the lights in a Z-Wave™-based system. And second, it enables the management of more than one actor device, in the form of “scenes” (e.g., light scenes, etc.), and coordinates multiple actors operating together, albeit by sending individual commands or multicast commands out to multiple actors.
However, such a peer-to-peer gateway is limited in that it is not an integral part of the communication amongst sensor and actor devices, because it merely monitors the communications traffic and, if necessary, intervenes and sends its own commands.